Tag Archives: winter

CUHWC Winter Skills 2018

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So once again we headed to Glencoe, this time to meet up with 4 current CUHWC members who had agreed to let Dave lead a winter skills course.

The 4 (Sarah, Bronwen, Chris and Simon) had been out the day before, and had some experience between them, so it was an intense couple of days covering lots of skills and lots of ground to practise them on.

First up, we headed towards Buachaille Etive Beag, to run through the basic personal skills – footwork, crampons and axes. After lunch we put these into practice by walking over both Munros and taking the direct route down to the car.

The next day, we planned an ambitious ascent of Bidean Nam Bian, ascending up to Coire nan Lochan, again recapping on the personal skills, while also talking more about route choice, planning and avalanches. The ascent onto Stob Coire nan Lochan provided some slightly more interesting mixed ground and some fantastic views on top. The consensus was to head for Bidean instead of doing any more skills, so we pressed on, up an imposing looking snow arete to find Bidean was also out of the cloud when we arrived. Knowledge from a passing helpful mountaineer told us the descent into the Lost Valley was not suitable. This wasn’t much of a surprise, so we retraced our steps and descended from Stob Coire nan Lochan back to the car, managing to fit in a brief demonstration of rope work and enjoying the good slidability of the snowpack.

It was a fantastic couple of days, with great weather, surprisingly good conditions and good company. Thanks to CUHWC and the guys

Found our first snow not too far from the road
Learning to walk again
Off to find another patch of snow
How not to hold an axe
“Now trip yourselves up”
‘Self belay’
SLIDING!
Surprisingly effective snow for both sliding and stopping
Stationary practice of the self arrest position
Dave goes for a slide
Mid arrest
Head first – looking good!
Another head first
We’ll try that again
Stomping in crampons
Let’s try this for real on a hill.
The top of Stob Dubh
Found an interesting way off
Looking back at Stob Dubh and the group coming up the ridge to Stob Coire Raineach
A lovely snow ramp direct to the car
Next day – into Stob Coire nan Lochan
Starting up the ridge to the summit
Found some rocky sections
More fun
Everyone (except photographer) on Stob Coire nan Lochan
The ridge to Bidean was too nice to miss out on
Taking care on the exposed slope
From Stob Coire nan Lochan, looking north to Glencoe and the Aonach Eagach
Good cornice avoiding on the way down
Final romp down the glen.

for a great weekend, I hope they all continue to enjoy the winter mountains.

Proper Scottish Winter

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In February, Jo took a couple of days of work and we zoomed up to the Glencoe area to see if winter was still around. It was.

Stayed in the van, but with the luxury of campsite showers and ‘shore power’ for the heater. Van living, combined with 4 consecutive quality winter mountain days out and a trip to the Clachaig made us feel a bit closer to being real Scottish mountaineers.

Victoria Bridge, setting off into a typical Scottish day
Slogging up to the ‘other’ Aonoch Eagach (on Stob Ghabhar) – we found snow!
Great ridge in a bit of sun
Looking NE out to Rannoch Moor
Approaching the interesting section
Stob Ghabhar looking rather fine
Aonach Eagach (a dog followed us along here, with owner)
Dave in mountains
It then got windy, cloud rolled in and we didn’t see anything as we summitted. After a bit of compass work, we were back on the ridge, descending this time.
Dave wondering if this slope is a) the correct way and b) safe
Dave lolloping down the deep snow
Once again, the weather turned as we climbed up Stob a’ Choire Odhair, so no photos. This is Dave again playing in the snow as we descended off Beinn Toaig towards the van
Another day, another slog up a hill to start.
Steep initial climb up above Ballachulish
Warm enough for base layers, and getting higher
Great views over Loch Leven.
Onto the NE ridge of Sgurr Dheag. Lots of parties attempting the East ridge, but few made it.
Loch Leven, the Pap and the Mamores
Good winter conditions
More fantastic views
Approaching the final ridge to Sgorr Dhearg.
Again, the cloud came in, and after some compass work we descended to the col, in high winds. We decided to give Sgorr Dhonuill a shot
Again, pretty windy and cloudy, which made the top exposed section interesting, but no photos until we were descending into the forest
Snow down to the sea today, so we ploughed our way into Coire nan Lochan. The path is in the photo on the right.
Dave deep in snow, thankful for not being the first person.
Having decided the snow was too deep for climbing, we took all of our gear on a jolly trip around the top of the coire, via Stob Coire nan Lochan
Dave being silly on the way down. He then had to try to be sensible to navigate down from the ridge to the path in low vis.
Our final day, on Buachaille Etive Beag. Dave got up early to allow him to break trail all the way.
On the ridge out towards Stob Dubh
After floundering in a cornice in high winds, we turned back around 200m from the summit.
By which point our footprints had filled in so we could break trail all the way back to the bealach
Finally, a summit (Stob Coire Raineach) with views – after good conditions all week, this was a blue sky and sunshine day to top it off.
Views of Stob Coire Sgreamhach
More of the same
Back down the ridge, wondering what the massive crowd is doing at the bealach
Decided to run off the side in the lovely powder, and also avoid the big group
Final few km back to the van. Amazing weather.

Climbing or writing?

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So, as I’m in the throes of frantically finishing writing a thesis, we took a long weekend in Cairngorm.

Accommodation was in the very nice Badaguish lodges, where the best part is the lively company of ex and current British Exploring Leaders. Some three vans turned up; although we didn’t have ours this time, it was clear where the inspiration for our van came from.

Saturday had a good forecast, so we headed into Coire an t-Sneachda with Richard. Richard has a 12 week old girl and was on a rare day off so we had volunteered to take him on his first real winter climb. We haven’t climbed much recently, so thought that Spiral Gully would provide a long and easy acclimatisation for everyone. After some confusion about what other people were doing, we ended up with 4 other teams in the gully. Luckily, where other climbers saw the easy right hand variation, I saw the more interesting left hand variation. Unfortunately, part way through this interesting section the ropes decided to become unbelievably tangled. This put a stop to our overtaking manoeuvres, but did remind us of the tight rope work needed in winter to keep everything moving smoothly. By the time we escaped the knot, we threaded our way back through other teams on the route to find the direct finish was already occupied, so we were forced to take the easy way home. A couple of windy tacks east across the plateau and we escaped down the goat track for a late lunch.

Sunday started with quite a bit of lethargy. Luckily Tom was keen to do something harder, and I foolishly said I would help. Leaving everyone else to a lazy breakfast we headed into the corrie again. This time looking for either Broken Gully or Aladdin’s Mirror Direct. Deciding that short and steep would be preferred over the longer Broken Gully, we headed to the base of Aladdin’s Mirror Direct. A fun time ensued as I learnt to lead ice. Luckily Rob had provided some vital info about number of ice screws needed. He had also told us the crux was in the first section, but I found the second section more imposing, which didn’t help morale. Unfortunately, once we’d all learnt to climb ice, the pitch was over and only steep snow / spindrift was left. Amazingly, despite the forecast, we topped out into the sun – my favourite moment of any mountaineering day.

Having re-learnt how to climb and bettered our grade in the first two days, we tried to squeeze another climb in on the Monday before driving home. Unfortunately, Red Gully was already taken by another pair, and despite our attempts to overtake, we couldn’t find a belay point quick enough. A quick discussion followed where we decided that it would be better to leave it rather than follow behind a slow party, and there wasn’t too much else in the corrie that was tempting. We played in the broken ground near the goat track then headed back over the top and drove home, getting back at a sensible time for once. It was nice not to mess with ropes yet still play around with two axes, having fun in the mountains, knowing the next day we would be back chained to a desk in the middle of nowhere. The sun was also out, but not quite enough to give Jo her first few of the plateau (still waiting after six years of visits).

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